A Knife at the Side of the Bed
I sleep with a knife by my bed. It’s a Kershaw, matte silver in color, and folds compactly in on itself. Pleasingly weighty, it fits elegantly in the hand. It is […]
Category Archives: not horror, but still uncomfortable
when I’m feeling lit’ry
Full Moon Fever
Well, it’s been an interesting two days. It wasn’t cancer after all, and something the surgeon was happy to remove in his office, giving me a good prognosis even without […]
Incident at Indian Springs: Ghosts of the Grand Canyon
It was fifty years now since the woman came panting up the Bright Angel Trail, her face white and calm, so calm, but eyes that were wilder than anything he’d […]
The Bad Guy
I’m always the bad guy!, you’d scream, veins bulging at your temples plus the one in the middle of your forehead, the one that looked like a snake writhing just […]
The Eleven Minutes
She’d already been in bed for nearly twenty minutes when she heard him come into the bedroom. Her back was to him in the slightly musty dark but after fourteen […]
Kitchen Confidential
How do you like the kitchen, they ask. It’s a great kitchen, they tell her. A really great kitchen. Great lighting, don’t you think. And all of the work surfaces. […]
The Search
We were up early in the cold. No one talked much. There was only the sound of crying, which you might expect. I wish she’d stop carrying on so, someone […]
Forcing Branches
It all started when he gave her the book. That is what Carol would tell Shandy, if she could. That is what she tells herself. But then, in typical bossy […]
No Life Guard On Duty
The summer of the yellow swimsuit she was ten and tall for her age. Skinny as a beanpole, her mother would say, in a way that always made her feel […]
Sounds of the Night Watch: A Cry In the Dark
Last night I woke suddenly, as if ejected from sleep. I couldn’t see the clock over the vague hump of your blanketed shoulder, but it was the deepest ditch of […]
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